The House of Rothschild by Niall Ferguson Volume 1: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848

In his rich and nuanced portrait of the remarkable, elusive Rothschild family, Oxford scholar and bestselling author Niall Ferguson uncovers the secrets behind the family's phenomenal economic success. He reveals for the first time the details of the family's vast political network, which gave it access to and influence over many of the greatest statesmen of the age. And he tells a family saga, tracing the importance of family unity and the profound role of Judaism in the lives of a dynasty that rose from the confines of the Frankfurt ghetto and later used its influence to assist oppressed Jews throughout Europe. A definitive work of impeccable scholarship with a thoroughly engaging narrative, The House of Rothschild is a biography of the rarest kind, in which mysterious and fascinating historical figures finally spring to life.

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a senior research fellow of Jesus College, Oxford University, and a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He is the bestselling author of "The House of Rothschild" and "Colossus,

Unrated Critic Reviews for The House of Rothschild

Kirkus Reviews

There are, to be sure, extended passages dealing with financial transactions together with charts detailing, for example, such arcana as the “weekly closing prices of 3 percent consols, 1828—1832.” The scholarly analyses of old balance sheets and financial statements, however, give way to the com...

Kirkus Reviews

In a thorough, diligent study, Ferguson (History/Oxford) completes his grand chronicle of the family that achieved history’s greatest economic hegemony (The House of Rothschild: Money’s Prophets, 1798-1848, 1998).

Publishers Weekly

The book ends with the post-WWII rebuilding of the Rothschilds into a far-flung ""mini-multinational."" Drawing on thousands of letters from private Rothschild archives, Ferguson does a masterful job of showing how the Rothschild financial empire interacted with the governments of Europe.